Jews and the 109 Countries they have supposedly been expelled from (Part 5)

(Part 1)

(Part 2)

(Part 3)

(Part 4)

78. 1654 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Little Russia (Beylorus)
This was in the context of a war between Russia and Poland, as they were associated with the Polish nobility. Atrocities, Massacres, and War Crimes: An Encyclopedia, edited by Alexander Mikaberidze, the Cossacks also attacked Poles and Catholics - in particular Roman Catholic clergy.

79. 1656 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Lithuania
I can't find anything on this alleged expulsion. The Jewish population of Vilnius did decrease after its occupation by Muscovite forces, but then the whole city's population fell.

80. 1669 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Oran (North Africa)
This is listed as North Africa, but Oran was under the Spanish, who had already expelled them. But in any event, Jonathan Israel finds that it "had relatively little to do with the traditional role of the Jews in the Spanish North African strongholds or the long-standing friction between Spanish Christianity and the Jews" but rather " the Shabbatian frenzy in the Sephardi world of 1665-66, the temporarily heightened tension between the three great faiths of the Mediterranean following the resumption of the Ottoman offensive against Venetian Crete in 1667, and the precarious grip on power in Spain of the Austrian Jesuit, Father Nithard, who was then inquisitor-general and chief minister".

81. 1669 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Vienna
Animosity against the Jews was due to a non-Jewish woman being found drowned and the crown prince dying at 3 months, as well as the Queen's anti-Semitism. The city was also under pressure from the Ottomans. This was only a partial expulsion, of poorer Jews, with the rest expelled the following year. But they were allowed back in in 1675.

82. 1670 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Vienna
Coming just 1 year after the previous entry and being attributed to the same city, this is the most blatant example of double-counting in this list.

83. 1712 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Sandomir
This town is also known as Sandomierz. This was instigated by the blood libel, where a Christian woman threw the dead body of her illegitimate child into the yard of a Jew. Nonetheless, though they were ordered to leave, they probably did not and in 1764 there were already/still Jews there.

84. 1727 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Russia
According to The Jewish Minority In The Soviet Union by Thomas E Sawyer, this was linked to backlash to the Judaizing heresy and fears of Jewish influence.

85. 1738 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Wurtemburg
This was linked to the execution of Joseph Süss Oppenheimer, who was executed for political reasons, and they were expelled in 1739 but soon allowed to return.

86. 1740 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Little Russia (Beylorus)
I can't find any information on this, and it does not seem to have happened.

87. 1744 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Prague, Bohemia
This was a 1745 expulsion due to anti-Semitism on the part of Maria Theresa, who called them a "plague". There were also rumours that they had sided with the Prussians, and there was pressure from Prague's burghers. A contemporary, Nathaniel William Wraxall, said that she "nourishes many narrow and illiberal prejudices" and "firmly believed every heretic excluded from the divine mercy"; she also deported Protestants. The expulsion was cancelled and 4 years later they could return. Indeed, in the 1760s she started protecting Jews.

88. 1744 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Slovakia
This is double counting, as Slovakia was ruled by Maria Theresa at the time.

89. 1744 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Livonia
I am unable to find any information about this. Livonia was under the Russians at the time.

90. 1745 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Moravia
This is double counting, as Moravia was ruled by Maria Theresa at the time.

91. 1753 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Kovad (Lithuania)
I was unable to find any trace of this expulsion. The Jews seemed to live happily in Lithuania at this time. Kovad doesn't even appear to be a real place in Lithuania.

92. 1761 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Bordeaux
The Jews were supposed to be expelled in 1760, but this was just a reaffirmation of the 1394 expulsion. And this was never carried out.

93. 1772 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Deported to the Pale of Settlement (Poland/Russia)
This was not a deportation, but an area Jews were allowed to live in. And in practice there were many exceptions for Jews living outside the Pale.

94. 1775 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Warsaw
There was persecution in 1775, but no expulsion. There was supposed to be an expulsion in 1784 but that didn't happen.

95. 1789 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Alsace
There was no expulsion. In fact, they were given more rights (emancipated) in 1791.

96. 1804 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Villages in Russia
According to Pinkus's The Jews of the Soviet Union : the history of a national minority, the Minister of Justice Derzhavin saw them as greedy "parasites" and said they hated Christianity, and exploited others, but his views were balanced by liberals. While Jews were expelled from some villages, this was only part of Russia, and they could live in the Pale of Settlement (which was extended). Notably, Tsar Alexander I also issued a “Jewish Statute”, affirming Jewish rights, so it was not just persecution. The expulsion was started in 1807 but was suspended. In 1824 there was expulsion from a 50 verst wide strip (53km) on the Western frontier.

97. 1808 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Villages & Countrysides (Russia)
This is double counting.

98. 1815 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Lübeck & Bremen
According to The Cambridge History of Judaism, they were expelled from these places in 1816. I can't find any information on the reasons for Lübeck's expulsion and I can find even less about Bremen's expulsion. Yet, there seems to have been de facto Jewish presence in Bremen through this period.

99. 1815 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Franconia, Swabia & Bavaria
I am unable to find any information on any of these expulsions. Certain nothing seems to have happened in Bavaria around this time.

100. 1820 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Bremen
I can't find anything on this. And anyway, it would be double counting.

101. 1843 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Russian Border Austria & Prussia
This is double counting (I only found one source on this, but anyway see 1827 above).

102. 1862 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Areas in the U.S. under General Grant's Jurisdiction[1]
This was during the American civil war in response to military corruption. It was also countermanded by Abraham Lincoln less than a month later.

103. 1866 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Galatz, Romania
According to Carol Iancu's  texts Jews in Romania, 1866-1919 : from exclusion to emancipation, there was some persecution and local expulsions in Romania. They were seen as foreigners and vagrants. Minister Ion Bratianu called them "a social plague". This was partly motivated by religious discrimination, economic resentment and xenophobia (the Jews were seen as foreign and didn't assimilate)

104. 1880s - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Russia
This might be referring to the 1886 expulsion in Kiev, but anyway this is double counting.

105. 1891 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Moscow
This is double counting. And anyway it was at least partly due to anti-Semitism: Tsar Alexander III approved of the persecution with the words "But we must never forget that the Jews have crucified our Master and have shed his precious blood".

106. 1919 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Bavaria (foreign born Jews)
I can't find anything on this at all. There was a short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic around this time, but I can't find any expulsions.

107. 1938-45 - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  Nazi Controlled Areas
This is the famous one everyone knows about. And we know it was motivated by anti-Semitism, economic resentment and political factors around World War II.

108. 1948 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Arab Countries
This was due to political factors (war with Israel) and anti-Semitism. But this was not pure expulsion - many also moved to Israel (or other countries) due to pull factors.

Note that even the original list doesn't have 109 "countries" - only 108.

So after reviewing all of these examples, we can see that they mostly fall into the following categories:

- "Expulsions" that don't seem to have happened and which are included to inflate the count (31)
- Announced but not implemented/partly implemented expulsions (10)
- Double counting (or more) of the same "country" (including a slippage of terminology of city and country) (20)
- motivation by Christian anti-Semitism and/or conspiracy theories (including dodgy accusations) (18)
- religious motivation in the sense that in many cases, conversion to Christianity saved them from expulsion; the fact that conversion to Christianity was an option in many expulsions suggests that animus against the Jewish religion - rather than the Jews being inherently bad people (as the accusations go) was a key motivator (4 where conversion was an option)
- motivation by the desire to seize the Jews' wealth (7)
- "Eat the rich" sentiment (3)
- political reasons like wars (7)

These cover 100 of the 108 examples.

In addition, many of the expulsions were short lived. And the fact that Islamic areas are almost unrepresented in this long list suggests that Jewish expulsion was more due to cultural context than Jewish iniquity (as the accusations go).

In short, Jews have not been expelled from 109 countries, and their being expelled from some locations is not proof of Jewish iniquity.

Jews and the 109 Countries they have supposedly been expelled from (Part 4)

(Part 1)

(Part 2)

(Part 3)

60. 1551 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Bavaria
Albrecht V used Jews as targets for popular discontent caused by The Reformation and the Hussite revolution in Bohemia. Expelling them also let him erase his debts, and he seized their assets. There were also rumours of the Host being desecrated. In any event, Bavaria was under the Holy Roman Empire so this can be chalked up to double counting (with Prague, 1542).

61. 1555 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Pesaro
This looks like an error - in 1555 there was persecution (but apparently not expulsion) in Ancona, Italy, about 80km southwest of Pesaro. The Jews were welcomed in Pesaro after their expulsion from the Papal States in 1569.

62. 1557 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Prague
They were expelled from Prague in 1542 already (see previous post) so this is double counting.

63. 1559 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Austria
I can't find anything about this. There was an expulsion in Nordhausen, in modern day Germany, in this year, incited by Martin Luther's Von den Juden und Ihren Luegen. There were also expulsions "from Electoral Saxony (1537), the duchies of Hanover, Brunswick, and Lüneburg  (1553 and 1557), and from Zwickau (1543), Schweinfurt (1555), Nordhausen (1559) [and] Ansbach (1561)". So we can group them together with Prague in 1542 under the Holy Roman Empire due to the proximity in time.

64. 1561 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Prague
They had been expelled from Prague in 1542 and 1557 already, so this is triple counting.

65. 1567 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Wurzburg
According to State and Society in Early Modern Austria, in 1570 there was an accusation of Jewish ritual murder in Würzburg, so it doesn't look like they were expelled in 1567.

66. 1569 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Papal States
Pius V justified his expulsion of the Jews with religious reasons, usury and suspect accusations of crime and witchcraft. Jews were also exempt if they converted, and if they were in slums.

67. 1571 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Brandenburg
Apparently this actually happened in 1573, "in a wave of intolerance that accompanied the transition there from Catholicism to Lutheranism" since " Landowners and courtiers indebted to Jewish financiers often found such expulsions convenient".

68. 1582 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Netherlands
I can't find anything on this at all. Indeed, apparently the Netherlands was welcoming Jewish refugees from Belgium at this time, having declared independence the year before. I can't find any information on expulsions from the Spanish Netherlands (i.e. present day Belgium) at this time but at any rate, that would be counted under Spain. Notably, the Netherlands had quite a bit of tolerance for Jews until World War II.

69. 1582 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hungary
This appears to be referring to a 1582 decree in Presburg (modern Bratislava) that "that no one should harbor Jews, or even transact business with them". Yet, this was not an expulsion.

70. 1593 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Brandenburg, Austria
I can't find anything on this. Another source says the expulsion in this year was in Brunswick, but I can't find anything on that either. The Austrian municipality is spelled Brandenberg, too.

71. 1597 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Cremona, Pavia & Lodi
This is in modern Italy and happened because in 1582, a Jew was killed by a Christian, who was put to death, which enraged the Christians, who then demanded that Jews be banished. Also, "two Jewish families were left in Cremona, Lodi, and Alessandria".

72. 1614 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Frankfort
This is an older English spelling of Frankfurt. They fled after being attacked by a mob and then were "expelled" by the leader of the mob, Vincenz Fettmilch. The attack was motivated by anti-elitist sentiment, high taxes, corruption, resentment at the Jews influencing the government and their being rich (and lending money). The Reformation also contributed, and the people were also angered by Martin Luther's On the Jews and their Lies (whose influence on anti-Jewish sentiment is obvious).

73. 1615 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Worms
This was motivated by unhappiness over interest rates, a perception that Jews were favored over Christians, anger at the city council over corruption, maladministration and favoritism and of course some religious sentiments.

74. 1619 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Kiev
This was not enforced.

75. 1648 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Ukraine
This was during an uprising led by Bogdan Khmel'nyts'kyi against the Polish regime. The Jews were tax collectors and had ties to the Poles and many were killed by the Cossacks, so it wasn't an expulsion per se. Plus, Polish noblemen and Catholic priests were also killed.

76. 1648 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Poland
As you might be able to tell, this is double counting of the Bogdan Khmelnytsky episode.

77. 1649 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hamburg
I can't find much information about this, but they were allowed back in 1657/8 and there was religious motivation, with the pastor Johannes Müller who "asserted that toleration of the Jews contributed to the decay of Lutheranism in Hamburg" and "complained of the noisy and extravagant religious ceremonies of the Jews; he also maintained that Jews defiled the Christian Sabbath, insulted Christian women and possessed generally poor morals".

(Part 5)

Jews and the 109 Countries they have supposedly been expelled from (Part 3)

(Part 1)

(Part 2)

37. 1453 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - France
This doesn't seem to be a real expulsion, but an artefact of the English having control of Gascony (Bordeaux) until 1453, at which point the prevailing French laws on Jews applied.

38. 1453 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Breslau
In modern day Wroclaw, 41 Jews were burnt at the stake and the rest expelled for desecrating the Host (with fanciful allegations), according to John Capistrano, a foreign friar who had a record of spreading anti-semitism.

39. 1454 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Wurzburg
I can't find anything about this at all.

40. 1462 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Mainz
41. 1483 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Mainz
Note that these are the third and fourth times Mainz is appearing on this list, after 1438 and 1012, so it is a good example of triple (or even quadruple) counting.

42. 1484 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Warsaw
I cannot find anything about this.

43. 1485 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Vincenza (Italy)
This was due to the blood libel and a friar, Bernardino da Feltre, who went around Northern Italy trying to get Jews expelled.

44. 1492 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Spain
This was Ferdinand and Isabella's (in)famous expulsion. Jews were allowed to convert if they didn't want to be expelled. Besides anti-semitism, this was partly motivated by economic reasons - seizing their property.

45. 1492 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Italy
I cannot find anything about this. Indeed, quite a few Italian states welcomed Jews who had been expelled from Spain.

46. 1495 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Lithuania
Alexander Jagiellon expelled them due to "the international situation of that time, the circumstances surrounding the economic activities of financially competent Jews, and the financial status of the Grand Duke’s estate". Yet, they were allowed back in only 8 years later in 1503, so it wasn't much of an expulsion.

47. 1496 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Naples
Some sources say that this was when Naples was conquered by Spain in 1495 (and Malamat and Tadmor's A History of the Jewish People adds that it was only implemented in 1510). Neapolitan history during the Italian Wars is complicated, but regardless this is another example of double counting since Spain had already expelled them.

48. 1496 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Portugal
This is conventionally believed to be because Manuel I wanted to marry the eldest daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. And they were given a choice to convert.

49. 1498 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Nuremberg
In the years leading up to the expulsion there had been much anti-semitic sentiment fanned. There were also claims that they were involved in crime.

50. 1498 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Navarre
As with Portugal, King Johan and Queen Catalina expelled the Jews due to Spanish influence, partly to get their help to ward off France. Again as with Portugal and Spain, they could convert - and most did (because they had no way out, as they were not allowed in Spain). Jewish property was also seized. This didn't stop Navarre being taken over by Spain, unfortunately.

51. 1510 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Brandenberg
This was due again to allegations of desecrating the Host but was not strictly enforced.

52. 1510 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Prussia
The Duchy of Prussia was only created in 1525 from the territory of the Teutonic Knights, and the area was later known as Brandenburg-Prussia, so this is double counting with the 1510 Brandenburg expulsion. In any event I can't find any records of Jewish expulsion from Monastic Prussia in 1510.

53. 1514 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Strasbourg
I can't find anything about this. In the notes to Chava Fraenkel-Goldschmidt's edition of The Historical Writings of Joseph of Rosheim: Leader of Jewry in Early Modern Germany, she notes that "At the close of 1515, William, bishop of Strasbourg, received a charter from the Emperor authorizing both him and the Lords of Andlau and their favourites to expel the Jews from a number of specified villages, including Mittelbergheim. This apparently is what R. Joseph was referring to in section 7 of the Chronicle (for 1514/ 15): “. . . and the Bishop was with them in their plan to chive us out of the land”. He states there that the Bishop and the Lords of Andlau cancelled their expulsion plan, and from the tenor of his words it seems that at that time there was no expulsion from his town. Nevertheless, it is possible that the expulsion threat was one of the reasons for R. Joseph’s change of abode."

54. 1515 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Genoa
Genoa was occupied by the French during this time, so it makes most sense for this to be classified as double counting. The Jewish Virtual Library says they were expelled in 1515 but allowed back in a year later. The Jews in Genoa: 507-1681 by Urbani et al on the other hand reports that "In 1516, however, Ottaviano Fregoso, governor of the city under the French dominion, expelled all of the few Jews living in Genoa, even though a few documents seem to prove the contrary.” Thus Joseph"

55. 1519 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Regensburg
This was due to the blood libel.

56. 1533 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Naples
57. 1541 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Naples
Even ignoring how Naples supposedly already expelled them in 1496, the 1541 expulsion here was just the implementation of the 1533 expulsion, and Naples was under Spain all this time.

58. 1542 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Prague & Bohemia
At this time, Bohemia was ruled by Ferdinand I (who had been reared in Spain) in the name of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, so this is arguably double counting with Spain. Since this came 23 years after Regensburg in 1519 (the last entry from the Holy Roman Empire, I will generously count this as a separate item).

59. 1550 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Genoa
Coming only 35 years after the listing for Genoa in 1515, this is definitely a double (or triple) count.

(Part 4)

(Part 5)

Jews and the 109 Countries they have supposedly been expelled from (Part 2)

(Part 1)

10. 1182 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - France
The Jewish History Sourcebook notes that Philip Augustus expelled them to seize their wealth. Curiously, if the Jews were really such bad citizens, he allowed them back in 1198 - with heavy taxation, to earn more of their money.

11. 1182 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Germany
I am unable to find any information on this. Indeed, Steve Katz of Boston University notes that "Between 1182 and 1486 Jews were expelled from all the Christian countries of Europe except Germany"

12. 1276 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Upper Bavaria
I can find almost no information on this - only that Louis the Strict banished them. But as The Jewish Encyclopedia notes, "it could not have lasted long, for nine years later 180 Jews, accused of a ritual murder in the synagogue, were committed to the flames".

13. 1290 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - England
A resource from the University of Oxford notes that Jews had historically been protected by the Crown, and that it was only from the middle of the 12th century that anti-Semitism grew, partly due to the blood libel, and the Church also grew more hostile to Jews. It also links anti-Semitism to the Crusades and Jewish money-lending (the latter of which, in turn, pressured Christians because the Jews were themselves being taxed by English Kings). But the proximate cause for Edward I's 1290 decree was to raise money in a quid-pro-quo with Parliament, which would give him money if he expelled the Jews.

14. 1306 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - France
This was partly due to the Church's anti-Semitism, but the primary cause was that Philip IV was short of money due to a war with the Flemish, so expelling the Jews let him steal their property.

15. 1322 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - France (again)
One might question why the Jews needed to be expelled from France again after only 16 years; Louis X allowed them in again in 1315. But in Philip V, Charles IV, and the Jews of France: The Alleged Expulsion of 1322, Elizabeth A. R. Brown notes that they may not really have been expelled (again) in 1322 - and they were actually in France on a 12 year contract from 1315 to 1327. In any event, the alleged expulsion is linked to how in 1321 "the Jews were linked with the lepers of France in an alleged plot to poison the wells of Christendom" (even if anti-Semites think that the Jews could really have been plotting to poison wells, hopefully they don't also imagine that there is/was some grand Global Council of Lepers co-ordinating this conspiracy with the Jews). By persecuting both lepers and Jews, Philip V could "enrich the royal treasury by claiming the property of those found guilty", and "if the banishment of the Jews from France and the county of Burgundy was proclaimed, the order remained generally unexecuted or was canceled".

16. 1348 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Switzerland
This was linked to the Black Death, and lepers and the poor were also suspected of perpetrating the plague, but Jews were viewed as "the main antagonists of Christianity".

17. 1349 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hielbronn (Germany)
This is spelled "Heilbronn" and given the timeframe, it is no surprise that this also happened during the Black Death.

18. 1349 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Saxony
Ditto. Though what happened in Germany was pogroms rather than expulsions.

19. 1349 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hungary
Ditto.

20. 1360 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hungary
This is variously attributed to "the hostile influence of the Church" and because Lajos / Ludwig / Louis I "had failed to convert them" (according to Norman Roth's 2014 Medieval Jewish Civilization: An Encyclopedia and other sources). But Raphael Patai's The Jews of Hungary History, Culture, Psychology also presents a more base motive: "when the Jews were expelled, their landed properties were confiscated by the royal treasury and presented by the king to his favorites, to the cities, and most often to church prelates. Thus in 1361, Lajos bestowed the new synagogue of the Pressburg Jews, built in 1336, to his physician". Plus, he let them back in after a few years, so.

21. 1370 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Belgium
There was a massacre because Jews were accused of desecrating the Host: "A banker of Enghien, distinguished by his wealth as well as by his philanthropy, was assassinated in his own garden. His wife and son took refuge in Brussels. The assassins spread the report that the Jews had stolen from a church consecrated wafers in order to pierce them with poniards. This brought about the burning of hundreds of Jews at Brussels (May 22, 1370) and a general banishmentfrom Belgium".

22. 1380 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Slovakia
I am unable to find any information on this.

23. 1388 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Strasbourg
This was officially blamed on usury but their real estate was confiscated, which surely played into the motivations.

24. 1394 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Germany
I am unable to find any information on this.

25. 1394 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - France
Charles VI expelled them in 1394. In Paris there had been a rumour that the Jews had crucified a Christian baby on Good Friday and had killed a convert from Judaism. What was interesting about this expulsion was that their property was not confiscated, so this was not motivated by the chance to enrich the state (<< Ce qui distingue cette ordonnance des précédentes, c'est, d'une part, qu'elle n'offre pas le caractère de spoliation habituel ; elle ne confisque pas les biens des Juifs, elle leur permet de rentrer dans leurs créances et d'emporter ce qui leur appartient >> - Histoire des Juifs à Bordeaux by Théophile Malvezin (1875))

26. 1420 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Lyons
I can't find anything about this, except a note that it was not part of the Kingdom of France, so they had not been affected in 1394.

27. 1421 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Austria
There had been rumours of host desecration in 1420. Albert / Albrecht V was also motivated by seizing Jewish property and getting his debts cancelled. The Jews were also suspected of being sympathetic to the Hussites, with whom Austria was at war. Some were burned alive when they refused to get baptised.

28. 1424 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Fribourg
The only source I can find is Wikipedia, which links to German sources. It says the most recent round of persecution had been going on since 1401: "As a result of news of ritual killings against Christians in distant Bavaria, on 4 July 1401, the city council, after consulting Duke Leopold, announced the expulsion of all Jews from the pulpits. The councillors solemnly signed the decree dekein Jude ze Friburg niemmerme sin sol (no Jews may set foot in Freiburg ever again). Jews were only allowed to stay in Freiburg with the aid of a municipal court and an hourly fee. From 1411 onwards, Jews were accepted again in Freiburg, but during the time of the imperial city (1415-1527), King Sigismund officially confirmed the decree of 1401 with the Eternal Expulsion in 1424". So it sounds like anti-Semitic rumours motivated the expulsion.

29. 1424 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Zurich
The year seems off, since I can only find this year mentioned in sources without details (just saying they were expelled). According to Rafaël Francis David Amadeus Newman Rafael Newman's Contemporary Jewish Writing in Switzerland An Anthology, this was in the wake of rumours about Jews poisoning public fountains or spreading the Black Death. There were also several expulsion orders around that time: 1425, 1435 and 1436, which suggests that they weren't enforced.

30. 1424 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Cologne
According to D. Joslyn-Siemiatkoski's Christian Memories of the Maccabean Martyrs, this was due to "repeated mob attacks on Jews".

31. 1432 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Savoy
I am unable to find any information on this. The closest thing I can find is that in 1417 and 1430, the Jews of Savoy were accused of having books which blasphemed against Christianity.

32. 1438 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Mainz
The only thing I can find on this is that there was "a dispute with the council" and that "they may in fact have been expelled". In addition to this, in Ashkenazic Jewry in Transition, Bernard Rosensweig notes that: "The high rates of interest were commensurate with the risks which were involved in the collection of loans made by Jews to non-Jews. There was always the real possibility of a total loss of the capital; and this could only be compensated for by a high rate of interest. It was not an easy matter to collect a debt. Members of royalty, government officials, and civic authorities, were constantly in need of money, and they were never anxious to repay the loans which they had taken"

33. 1439 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Augsburg
I can't find the proximate reason for this, but a century before that, the city owed the Jews a lot of money (and debts owed to them got cancelled at least twice) and during the Black Death they got massacred. So their expulsion could be to avoid paying money owed to them.

34. 1442 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Netherlands
I can't find anything on this.

35. 1444 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Netherlands
This seems to refer to Utrecht prohibiting Jews from entering the city. BMJ Speet in Reappraising the History of the Jews in the Netherlands reports that in 1485 they were pressured by the guilds into reiterating that, saying that "the Jews conducted themselves improperly and were dishonest traders". Whatever your views on this, this was not an expulsion.

36. 1446 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Bavaria
This either refers to Jews being expelled from Upper Bavaria in 1442 or Jews being expelled from Berlin and the province of Brandenburg in 1446 (and allowed to return in 1447). If this is the former, apparently it was due to clerical lobbying.

(Part 3 - which goes live on 30 July)

(Part 4)

(Part 5)

Jews and the 109 Countries they have supposedly been expelled from (Part 1)

Anti-semites like to repeat the claim that Jews have been expelled from 109 countries, which shows that the expulsions were justified and that there is something wrong with Jews (and presumably, that that justifies discriminating against them today).

I had some trouble finding a list of these 109 countries, but eventually found one (oddly, a Christian site) (ironically, the same list is also shared by an "American Jewish Zionist" on Twitter).

The first thing that strikes one about this list is that it is not a list of countries, since cities and territories are also included. So it is not right to say that Jews have been expelled from 109 countries - at most one can say that they have been expelled from 109 areas.

Also, there is a lot of double counting. For example "Germany" appears on the list 3 times, and one instance is only 45 years after the other: should this really be counted as 2 separate expulsions, much less 2 different countries expelling Jews?

One also wonders if examples such as "Bavaria" (which appears 5 times) should be included under "Germany", the problems with anachronistically projecting modern nation states' borders into the past aside.

So even taking this list at face value, one can at most say that Jews have been expelled from various territories 109 times. Indeed, the original document makes this clearer, as it is titled "109 Locations whence Jews have been Expelled since AD250" (though that still elides over the double counting issue).

Digging into some of the 109 instances, one finds (naturally) more problems.

1. 250 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Carthage
I cannot find any evidence for this at all.

2. 415 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Alexandria
In Religious and Intercommunal Violence in Alexandria in the 4th and 5th centuries CE by Lauren Kaplow, she notes that Cyril became the bishop of Alexandria and he hated the Jews after reading and studying scripture, and concludes that "he begaun (sic) his campaign against the Jews for religiously motivated reasons" and "provoke[d] them into combat". John of Nikiu and Socrates report that the Jews were threatened by Cyril and feigned a church burning to kill Christians, and in retaliation the Christians drove them out.

3. 554 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Diocèse of Clermont (France)
The timing for this is off. In 576, Avitus, the bishop of Clermont, gave an ultimatum to the Jews: either convert or be expelled. Those who refused went to Marseille.

4. 561 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Diocèse of Uzès (France)
It was hard to find information on this, but I have ascertained that this refers to Saint Ferréol (Ferreolus) of Uzès. The Jewish Encyclopedia notes that Ferreol "converted them by living in familiar intercourse with them" but that in 555, Childebert "banished Ferreol... for having had too friendly relations with the Jews" (in the context of church councils that disapproved of and discriminated against the Jews) and then in 558 Ferreol expelled the ones who wouldn't convert "from his diocese". So we can see that the expulsion was motivated by a desire to get into the king's good graces and not be banished again - he had to show that he had a hardline stance.

5. 612 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Visigoth Spain
Some of the information on this is contradictory, but the best account I can find is in God's Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570-1215 by David Levering Lewis, where he notes that "Jews were now the only non-Catholic population of any significance after the regime's formal renunciation of Arianism" and that "to King Sisibut, the existence of a large, prosperous Jewish population was utterly incompatible wit hthe unitary Christian kingdom he was devoted to building". In other words, Jews were persecuted because they were the only significant minority left, rather than because of their Jewishness. Lewis also notes that "tens of thousands of Jews converted to Catholicism under Sisibut's terrible sanctions - so while they were persecuted, they were not forced to convert upon pain of expulsion (and, indeed, by vaxhole logic they were not even forced to convert since they weren't physically converted or put at gunpoint).

6. 642 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Visigoth Empire
This is off and actually even a moment of reflection would cause one to wonder why, if the Jews had been expelled from "Visigoth Spain" in 612, they would need to be expelled again from the "Visigoth Empire" only 30 years later. Chintila in 638 did not exactly expel the Jews. Heinrich Graetz in History of the Jews, Vol. 3 (of 6) notes that everyone in the Visigothic empire had to "embrace the Catholic religion", and Jews had to convert or leave. So this is a further complication to the "109 countries" narrative that we have seen earlier - those who were Jewish by ethnicity were not expelled, only those with a Jewish religion. Furthermore, Visigothic kings alternated between being pro- and anti-Jewish so politics comes into it. There is also the context of Christian religious motivation - "Isidore of Seville wrote two books against the Jews... attempted to prove the doctrines of Christianity by means of passages from the Old Testament".

7. 855 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Italy
Ludwig II (Louis II) supposedly issued an edict ordering Italian Jews to leave, but this edict was never carried out. According to Bernard S Bachrach in Early Medieval Jewish Policy in Western Europe, this wasn't even approved by Louis, but was just prepared by one political faction. This must also be viewed in the context of the traditional Carolingian pro-Jewish stance, which came up against an ecclesiastical anti-Jewish stance (in other words, political jockeying was a factor).

8. 876 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Sens
Accounts of this are mixed. Most sources that mention this expulsion don't give any details, but the Jewish Virtual Library notes that "The mention of an expulsion of the Jews from Sens around 876 in an 11th-century chronicle is seemingly a confusion and probably refers to the expulsion, at the beginning of the 11th century, of Duke Raynaud of Sens, who "Judaized" and called himself the "king of the Jews." However, it is certain that in 1146 King Louis VII officially authorized the settlement of Jews in Sens". David Malkiel in Jewish-Christian relations in Europe, 840–1096 notes that the source, Odoranne de Saint-Pierre de Sens, "is almost incomprehensible" and places accounts of Jewish treachery in the context of a history of depicting them "as the enemies of Christ, Christianity and Christendom" for centuries.

9. 1012 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Mainz
David Malkiel (ibid) notes that "The background of the expulsion is unclear" but notes that many sources say Emperor Henry II was enraged at a cleric named Wecelin, a clerk of Duke Conrad converting to Judaism. Other historians attribute it to a supposed plot by the Jews of Orleans to get the Holy Sepulchre destroyed, but one suggests that they weren't expelled in the end.

(Part 2)

(Part 3 - which goes live on 30 July)

(Part 4)

(Part 5)